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Benchmarking dark matter search using a parity-check protocol with machine-learning optimized pulses

Yu-Han Chang1, Ilya Moskalenko1, Marko Kuzmanović1, Ognjen Stanisavljević1, Isak Björkman1, David Díez-Ibáñez2, Yikun Gu2, Akash V. Dixit3, Igor G. Irastorza2 et al.

Gheorghe Sorin Paraoanu1

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052011 – Published 17 September, 2026

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1103/m92t-xwgt

Abstract

We report on an improved microwave detection protocol for dark matter candidates such as the axion and the dark photon. We employ a superconducting transmon qubit dispersively coupled to a double-cavity system, enabling quantum nondemolition measurements of the photon occupation in a relatively short-lived storage cavity. To reduce the experimental cycle time and enhance sensitivity for axion and dark photon searches, we operate this detector in a regime of increased qubit–cavity coupling, resulting in Stark shifts of 4.6 MHz. In this regime, conventional control pulses suffer from strong frequency-detuning sensitivity and photon-number-dependent errors. We address this limitation by implementing frequency-detuning-robust π/2 pulses (obtained by machine-learning optimization) that preserve high-fidelity qubit control over a bandwidth of approximately 20 MHz. We experimentally validate this protocol and demonstrate single-photon detection performance comparable to previous implementations, despite significantly reduced qubit coherence times and storage-cavity lifetimes. Using parity-based measurement sequences combined with a hidden Markov model (HMM) analysis, we achieve background rates on the order of O(20)  Hz. In the absence of a magnetic field, we derive exclusion limits on the dark photon model for dark matter, reaching a sensitivity to the kinetic mixing angle of ε95%∼1×10−14 at 5.051 GHz. These results establish machine-learning-robust control as a key enabler for faster, more scalable microwave quantum sensors for dark matter searches.

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Phys. Rev. D 114, 052011– Published 17 September, 2026
  • Received 30 June 2026
  • Accepted 14 August 2026
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Published by the American Physical Society under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license. Further distribution of this work must maintain attribution to the author(s) and the published article’s title, journal citation, and DOI.

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